Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Vova Mir and Jake Addison ask, is “She is #4 prostitute in all of Kazakhstan” the funniest movie line of all time?

One of the most highly anticipated movies of the year is here: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (yes, that’s the real title). This movie has been steadily gathering hype on the internet ever since it was announced over a year ago. Does it live up to the hype?

Okay, so the plot is obviously not the movie’s strongpoint. What matters is if this movie is actually funny, and without a doubt, Borat is one of the funniest movies of all time. You will laugh at things you don’t normally laugh at and you will may even try to hold yourself back, but believe me you won’t be able to hold it back for long.

No one is safe from Borat’s crude and harsh comedy. Everyone from Jews to Gypsys are made fun of. This may sound as a silly racist comedy, but it’s not. Sacha Baron Cohen, a Jew himself, has made it clear that his film is not meant to offend any one particular nationality, but to show just how ignorant people are.

Sacha Baron Cohen successfully created a character that is not only obscenely offensive, but remarkably likable and seemingly innocent. The audience laughs at his lack of tact, social ignorance, and overall foreignness, but the most staggering beliefs are revealed by his interviewees.

Throughout the movie Borat Sagdiyev manages to dig up the part of every individual that has been concealed under years of social conditioning. Some try to mask it with proper dinning etiquette, while others blatantly yell out bigoted remarks in God’s behalf.

Many are calling Cohen’s work racist and anti-semitic. In reality it targets bigots, sexists, racists, homophobes, and Christians to ridicule them through their own actions and words. What better way to get over these global problems than to laugh at those who blindly stand for them?

Regarding the Kazakhstan government getting antsy about the release of this film due to possible negative effects on tourism and image of their country: Who can honestly say they gave two shits about this dingle berry of an ex-Soviet country before Borat came to the scene? If anything they should be paying him for the excessive amounts of advertising and press their country has received.

If there was only one comedy in the last five years I could recommend to someone, it would be Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Its sharp, clever and always crude humor will make you laugh until it hurts.